Category Archives: open space

The poor City of San Francisco refused to accept a speck of green space for the 6,000+ and growing population of residents in high-rise towers in Rincon Hill because Phil Ginsburg claims they can’t come up with the $24,000 per year to cut the lawn and hose down the benches a few times. Continue reading →

The Central Market Community Benefit District (CMCBD) is getting ready to renew and possibly expand its neighborhood services in the greater Central Market and SoMa area. The CBD promises to create a cleaner, safer and more inviting neighborhood.

Learn more about the CMCBD and its neighborhood programs by attending one of two meet and greets, scheduled on March 19 and 27. Hear about the CMCBD’s renewal and proposed expansion of its community services. Meet the CMCBD Board, Staff, Steering Committee, Community Guides, Clean Team and Partners. Continue reading →

The term “SRO” freaks people out. They associate it with rundown hotels in the Tenderloin and the tawdry housing found along the Sixth Street corridor. A few years ago, when developers were trying to build projects that at the time were called “market-rate SRO housing,” they were fighting an uphill battle against public perceptions. They’ve found a new champion in Supervisor Scott Wiener and he has come up with new terminology that makes these tiny studio apartments seem less threatening. Continue reading →

The SoMa StrEat Food Park opens later this week, with a grand opening celebration scheduled on Wednesday, June 6.

For those of you who have been living off the $1.50 hot dogs from Costco, relief is in sight.

The SoMa StrEat Food Park is set to open near the corner of 11th and Harrison Streets, with its “soft opening” beginning this week on Thursday, May 31 and continuing through Tuesday, June 5 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. The “grand opening,” featuring both lunch and dinner service, is set for Wednesday, June 6. Continue reading →

Update: The Western SoMa Neighborhood Transportation Plan was approved unanimously by the full Transportation Authority on March 27.

Our friends at the Transportation Authority are preparing to take the Western SoMa Neighborhood Transportation Plan through the board approval process. The report recommends traffic calming and pedestrian improvements to the alleys of Minna, Natoma, and Ringold Streets and signalized mid-block crossings of Seventh and Eighth Streets. You can read the complete plan by following this link.

The developer of one of the five “modest sized” towers planned for the area surrounding the new Transbay Transit Center is holding a community meeting on Wednesday night, November 30 from 5:30-7:30 p.m. in the Courtyard Marriott, 299 Second St. (at Folsom Street). 41 Tehama Street is expected to rise 32 stories, scaled back from the original proposal to build 54 floors, on the block bounded by 1st and 2nd Streets between Mission and Howard Streets.

The long awaited skate park under the Central Freeway touch-down ramp is one step closer to reality. The Planning Department recently issued a “Notification of Project Receiving Environmental Review” for the proposal, which includes the skate park and a mini-park, with basketball courts, play areas, a dog run, lighting, plantings and a pedestrian walkway. The construction is being managed by the Department of Public Works (Frank Filice, 558-4011, is the project manager), with funding coming from the sale of parcels along Octavia Boulevard. South of Market is finally getting something positive out of all those years of demolition and freeway construction.